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Wednesday, October 1, 2014

The raspberry red cardigan

In the beginning
of the year I decided I need to sew more clothes for myself. There is something
special in making your DIY clothes. I find greater pleasure in DIT than in
buying the next piece of clothing which I’d put on maybe twice and it’d be left
somewhere. As a result, I cut out a few things – a cardigan, pants, skirt, two
blouses. It was February and I’d make only the blouses. Later, in the summer, I
finished the pants as well. Only now, almost 8 months later, I finally sewed
the cardigan together.

This is a
Burda model from the last year (November, 2013). It’s recommended to use
knitted fabrics for the garment. I chose wool boucle fabric which is not
exactly a knit but worked fine. To be entirely honest, the initial idea was to
have a raspberry red cardigan but the fabric I had was not enough. I bought the
red piece first. It’s the only one left at the fabric shop, it was around 1.70
m (67 inches). Please have in mind that in Europe the fabric is wider than in
the USA. So the piece was actually 1.50 x 1.70 m (59 x 69 inches). I cut out the basic pieces – two fronts, one
back, two sleeves and found out that I am lacking 25 cm (10 inches) for the
collar. I went back to the shop and had to find something else that’d work. The
orange boucle was wonderful (at least for me).

It was an
easy sew. The sleeves had two pieces each – front and back. I sewed the front
pieces of the sleeves to the according pieces of the fronts. Same for the back
pieces. Then, I attached the fronts to the back, starting at the shoulders. Next,
I used my iron to press the 2.5 cm (1 inch) hem of the sleeves. It’s easier to
do it at this step and not when the entire sleeve is finished. I closed the
side seams and the lower part of the sleeves in one step. Now, it was time to
zigzag the sleeves’ hems. I used a large decorative zigzag for this.

I cut three
pieces WOF (width of the fabric), each was 6 cm (2.5 inches) wide. Pressed them
with the iron in half lengthwise. Joined two of them together and placed the
seam in the midback. Then I carefully hand attached them to the left front
first. When I reached the side seam of the bottom I had to cut some of the
current band and attached the third piece to it. I did this because the total
length of the two pieces was approximately 25 cm (10 inches) less than what I needed.
Whether I had attached the third piece at the end of the other one, it’d result
in having two seams in the mid back which was not what I’d like. Therefore I stopped
at the side seams and made the back from one piece. I repeated the steps for
the right collar side. When the collars was fully attached I pressed with the
iron and brought it back to my sewing machine. I used the same zigzag stitch to
finally attach the collar.

As a last
step I made a small orange brooch to add some detail on the otherwise plain
cardigan. And voila, my handmade cardigan was ready!

The result
- it is a midweek already and I've worn the cardigan twice already. It is warm
and bright. It is very suitable for the autumn, with its chilly mornings and
evenings and warmer days.

Now, as I think
about this, I love the raspberry red in combination with the orange. I love it
so much that last year I knitted one cardigan in the same combination. That cardigan
used the colours in the opposite way – it had orange body and sleeves and dark
raspberry collar. Soon, I’m going to share it here as well.

Another brooch variation.

Last week
was very intense in sewing. I made some official clothing for a wedding,
two cardigans – this and another one, and a few small things. Rarely, I have
such inspiration and productivity but when it happens, it is great!